Akira hated riding in limos. What's the need for such formalities? If the idea was to keep his profile under the radar, a limo was hardly the vehicle he should be riding in. Sure the windows were tinted but come on! Limo screams either: "famous person arriving!" or "watch out, funeral!", and there weren't any police cars guiding a lineup of people to assume the latter.

It was too spacious on the inside, too. No one can convince him a limo was built for only one person to sit in. Whoever has that thought needs their ego taken down a few pegs.

"If only Arsene could shrink," Akira sighed. He looked out the window once again, trying to deplete his absolute boredom and loneliness by sightseeing.

Then he realizes he doesn't recognize anything passing by. Isn't the driver supposed to be taking him home? He pressed the car's attached speaker.

"Excuse me, sir. Where are we going?"

"There was an accident on the main highway. This is a shortcut."

"Really? It must have been a hell of an accident, then." He eyed what was passing by outside of the window. This driver must think he's stupid. He has snuck out of his home and taken walks around his neighborhood enough times to know what it looked like, and this definitely wasn't his neighborhood. If anything, it looked like they were a couple of blocks away from Madarame's old shack. He remembers because it was around here where he, Ann, and Ryuji got lost trying to find it.

Akira sighed. Another half-assed kidnapping scheme.

"Don't worry, sir. We'll be at your destination soon."

"Right." They must take him for a fool. He scooted over to the other car door, not caring to do so quietly. The blacked-out and soundproofed partition prevented the driver from seeing and hearing what he was doing, and the speaker didn't work unless the small button was pressed and held down.

From out the window, he could see a traffic light coming up. He readied his hand on the car's door handle. He had to time this right.

The car started to slow down when the light turned yellow.

1…

2…

The car stopped, trapped between a Honda Accord and a Mazda3 Sedan, which had three cars in front of it.

3!

He opened the car door and bolted. He ignored the blaring car horns and the pissed off drivers, jetting towards the shopping district he knew was close by.

He could always count on the shopping district being rowdy. Everyone always needed something, whether it's food, clothes or any other miscellaneous items. People need it, so they come here to get it.

Although, he did not expect to see some familiar faces.

"Akira?"

He skidded to a stop at the familiar voice and a small glimpse of two blondes. Ann and Ryuji were standing outside of a clothing shop. They were just leaving judging by the amount of shopping bags hanging from Ryuji's wrist. Looks like he got wrapped into another shopping trip.

"Yo! Dude! What are ya doing here?"

"He's over there!"

All three turned to see three thugs barreling their way, pushing aside innocent citizens in their sprint to get to him.

"Does that answer your question?"

"Quick, this way!" Ann took off in the opposite direction of the thugs and the boys followed behind her.

They ran through two blocks of alleyways before stopping behind an abandoned grocery store to catch their breaths.

"Do these bastards ever quit!" Ryuji huffed, and Akira would've answered them if he wasn't so busy trying to stop his lungs from burning.

"Ryuji, give me the bags."

"Great, they're all yours anyway," he slid the bags off his arms and gave them to Ann. She quickly rifled through the bag before pulling out a fedora (?).

"Ryuji, put this on."

Ah. He sees where she's going with this.

"Akira, take off your trench coat and switch with Ryuji."

"Wait, are you sure this is going to work?" Ryuji whispered-yelled as the jacket was pulled up and over his shoulders. "We're not even wearing the same pants."

"It'll be fine," Ann answered while fixing the fedora right on Ryuji's head. "It's too dark to notice."

Ryuji was still skeptical, so Akira added a few words for the final push. "We don't have much time. You're the fastest runner out of the three of us. You'll leave them in the dust before they even notice."

Ryuji swapped his eyes between his two friends, still skeptical but understanding that they really didn't have enough time to be lingering like this.

"Fine. I'll text you two when I know I've lost 'em." Ryuji tilted the hat further over his head. He stretched before taking back off into the busy streets.

Not a second later they saw the three thugs pass by, chasing down who they presume to be Akira.

They both let out a sigh of relief.

"So, getting into a lot of trouble lately?" Ann moved away from the edge of the building and instead leaned against the bricks. She took advantage of her shorter height and pretty much tucked herself into his shadow as she looked at him from underneath her eyelashes.

"Just an attempted kidnapping which probably could've evolved into a murder, No big deal," he shrugged and leaned against the back of the building too, still slightly crowding her against the wall but with room for her to escape if she wanted. He also eyed the shopping bags hanging from her wrists. "Been shopping much lately?"

"Ah, not really," she sheepishly eyed the bags, too. "I heard there was a sale going on here and I wanted to check it out."

"You could have asked me to take you."

"You had an important meeting to go to. I couldn't ask you to miss it."

"Yes, you could've." The meeting was only a round table of corrupt windbags complaining about their lack of power and trying to kiss his ass to get a higher position or an under-the-table raise. "I would much rather take you shopping than sit in that room with them again."

"Heavy is the head that wears the crown," she said.

"Not heavy enough that I don't have time for my friends." He quickly grabbed the bags from her arms, lining them along his arm and grabbing her hand. He could walk her to the subway station at least. He might as well board the train himself since his ride home is scrapped. He held her hand firmly in his and in turn she fitted in close to his side as they walked the busy sidewalk.

"Are you coming over tonight?" Ann asked. Akira nodded.

"If nothing else random pops up, I'll be there."

The bright side of her parents never being at home: she had free reign of the house at night. She did have a nanny, but she was a heavy sleeper so she was pretty much in the clear.

She still made sure to shut her door as quietly as possible. The downside of living in such a large house was that it had an even bigger echo. She didn't mind keeping her footsteps quiet though. The maids already knew of her nightly escapades. Most of them were younger than her and the rest were sweet, older ladies, so it never became a serious issue. Rather, it formed into gossip.

"Does the princess have a secret lover?"

"Who do you think stole our young princess' heart?"

Little did they know that each night her secret outings were to the pins.

Carmen always waited on her, lounging on her belly and tapping her claws against the ground outside of her small nest of jewels. She much preferred the nest in her hoard back in Shibuya, but she tolerated it for now, with the agreement that they returned to it often. She would already be watching the door as Ann slipped in under the veil of the night.

But she already had a visitor tonight.

The dragon merely slanted her eyes towards her owner, pausing in her preening from being doted on to silently gloat about taking all of the man's attention.

"I'm starting to think she likes you more than me."

Akira chuckled as the black and red scaled dragon bristled at her words.

"I mean it! She only does this with you. Any other man has to practically sing her praises to even look at her."

"Well of course. Such a beautiful dragon should receive endless praise." With a final brush of his hand against her scales, he stood from his kneel and walked towards her. He pushed the hood of his coat down, revealing his shaggy hair and his obsidian eyes. With the same hand he used to pet Carmen, he cupped and cradled her supple cheek and swiped his thumb across her soft skin. "I say the same for her beautiful owner."

"Y-you're always such a charmer." Despite her words, she couldn't deny the warmth flooding to her cheeks.

"And my charm never fails to make you blush."

"S-shut up." She huffed at the sound of her dragon snorting behind them. "And now she's laughing at me."

"She's not." The corner of his lips twitched upwards. She totally was. Carmen also loved to tease her - playfully of course - about her inability to take the slightest compliment from Akira without flushing. It's not her fault he's such a smooth talker!

"Where's Arsene?" She just noticed the stall beside Carmen was empty. Arsene and Carmen had taken a liking to each other a while ago. Sometimes the servants, maids or even she would come to the Dragon's stable and would be surprised to find the black and crimson dragon leisurely lounging in Carmen's stall with the ladder curled up next to him. It was a scene as cute as it was shocking. Carmen is very particular about who she lets get close to her and especially who she lets in her nest.

He visited so much that with the help of Akira and Carmen Ann made him a nest to rest in whenever he stopped by. He barely uses it though. He immediately goes to Carmen's nest. Even if the dragon wasn't there, he'd just curl up and take a nap in hers until she came back.

"Flying around somewhere," Akira answered. "I haven't been able to take him out on a flight in a while so he has a lot of pent up energy he wants to burn."

From her view, she saw Carmen sitting up from her former relaxed position. She shook off anything that may have stuck to her scales and slowly padded her way out of her nest past the two humans and took off into the night sky.

"Well, I guess she isn't sparing any time," Akira laughed.

"I can't really blame her." Ann folded her arms over her chest against the sudden draft of wind from her dragon's take off. "It has been a while since you and Arsene have visited. I was starting to think you would stop coming by."

"I would never miss the chance to spend time with you, Ann." Upon seeing the blonde's shiver he quickly went about unzipping his coat. He draped the heavy cloth around her shoulders, making sure the furry inner lining was snug on her person. "It seems like the kingdom has become even more hectic as of late."

"If it's not one thing, it's another." He huffs. "I swear it feels like everyone in the world hates me sometimes."

"Hey, don't talk like that." It isn't new for Akira to beat himself up like this. True to what she said, the crown is a heavy responsibility on his shoulders, and not everyone thinks he deserves that responsibility.

"Is Goro still giving you trouble?"

"When is he not?" Akira rolled his eyes. "But I can handle him. His dad on the other hand…"

"Is a piece of shit."

Akira laughed at the abrupt curse. "Yeah, he's a piece of shit."

They settled in her bean bag chair she had set beside Carmen's nest. She brought it to the stables for the nights where she couldn't sleep. She would sit on the bean bag and curl up next to Carmen. If she was still awake, the dragon would let her stroke her head until she fell asleep.

This time it was Akira curled up her lap like an adorable kitten. She cheerfully took advantage of the free access to his floofy hair.

"Tired?"

He hummed, nuzzling against her stomach much like a cat would.

"Then, sleep. I'll wake you up if anything happens."